Skype Lite is designed to work on slow cellular connections in India.
After Facebook Lite and YouTube Lite (which is dubbed YouTube Go), it is now Microsoft’s turn to roll out a 2G-friendly version of Skype in India. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showed off the app at an event in Mumbai earlier today, highlighting the fact that it was built at Microsoft’s development facility in Hyderabad and tested extensively in India.
Skype Lite lets you make audio and video calls to other Skype users, with the service automatically switching to HD calls once it detects that it’s on a fast connection. The app itself is lightweight, coming in at just 13MB, and comes with SMS support, along with a built-in filter that blocks spam messages. You’ll be able to easily track the app’s data usage, and it also features chatbots that provide the latest news or sports scores.
To facilitate adoption in India, Skype Lite is available in seven regional languages: Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. One of the key features of the app is Aadhaar integration, which allows the service to hook into the government’s vast database (over 1 billion) of registered users to verify their identity. Microsoft is touting the Aadhaar integration for virtual interviews, wherein a recruiter can authenticate an interviewee by requesting their Aadhaar details. The integration will go live in June 2017.
For now, Skype Lite is limited to the Indian market, and there’s no information to suggest it will be heading to other markets.
